Abstract
Chemoprevention is an important strategy to control the process of carcinogenesis and a number of plants with anti-cancer properties are being researched, some of which have shown promising results. Quercus infectoria galls is a well-known medicinal plant which has been used in medicine as larvicidal, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and antidiabetic properties. The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-tumor activity of the aqueous extract on the two stage process of skin carcinogenesis, consisting of initiation with a single topical application of a carcinogen 7, 12 - dimethylbenz (a) anthracene (DMBA) followed by a promoter (croton oil) three times in a week were employed. A significant reduction in tumor incidence, tumor burden, tumor yield, and cumulative number of papilloma was observed, along with a significant increase in average latent period in mice treated orally with 2 gm/kg of Quercus infectoria galls extract as compared to the positive control group treated with DMBA plus croton oil administered. Furthermore, Histopathological alterations in the carcinogen-treated control animals were also observed in the form of epidermal hyperplasia, keratinized pearl formation, and acanthosis in skin and tumors, whereas these were found to be reduced significantly before and after galls extract oral administration. The results thus concluded that Quercus infectoria galls extract exhibits significant anti-tumor activity and may serve in future drug development programs for the cancer prevention of skin cancer.
Highlights
Living organisms are daily subjected to physiological and environmental chemical substances; in both developing and developed countries, carcinogenic substances associated with environmental pollution are regarded as important lethal factors that are threatening the public health
Scientists found that dimethylbenz (a) anthracene (DMBA) binds to DNA in mouse skin a target tissue, through a 1.2,3,4-ring dihydrodiol epoxide which links to and ruin DNA, Oxidative stress caused by Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) that are greatly produced during metabolism of DMBA found to play roles in developing cancer of skin [3]
DMBA increases mutation rates of keratinocytes in skin epidermis and causes changes within composition of the cellular membrane, inactivate detoxifying enzymes and interfere with signaling proteins of cells, affect cells metabolism and deteriorate proteins structure [4]. These lead to uncontrolled growth of cutaneous cells into squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which regarded as the second most common type of epidermal neoplasia, the recently detected cancer globally classified as the skin tumor and up to 80% of these cancers found to be resulted from solar ultraviolet radiation
Summary
Living organisms are daily subjected to physiological and environmental chemical substances; in both developing and developed countries, carcinogenic substances associated with environmental pollution are regarded as important lethal factors that are threatening the public health. DMBA increases mutation rates of keratinocytes in skin epidermis and causes changes within composition of the cellular membrane, inactivate detoxifying enzymes and interfere with signaling proteins of cells, affect cells metabolism and deteriorate proteins structure [4]. These lead to uncontrolled growth of cutaneous cells into squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which regarded as the second most common type of epidermal neoplasia, the recently detected cancer globally classified as the skin tumor and up to 80% of these cancers found to be resulted from solar ultraviolet radiation. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) found to be induced directly by ultraviolet light damage, besides other causes like papilloma viruses from animal and human origin, existing ulcer and wounds, burns and in old scars [5]
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